Matt Wessler is a Staff Attorney at Public Justice. He concentrates on litigating precedent-setting cases involving significant issues affecting the public interest. He has briefed and argued high profile public interest cases at all levels of both state and federal court and has won landmark decisions in a diverse range of areas, including employee and consumer rights, the environment and personal injury law.
He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. Airways v. McCutchen, a watershed case involving complex questions at the intersection of ERISA, tort law and equity. He also argued and is counsel in a similar case, CGI v. Rose, in which the Ninth Circuit applied principles of equity to limit the ability of an insurance plan to recover from a badly injured beneficiary.
Beyond ERISA, Matt's practice before the U.S. Supreme Court involves both petition and merits stage briefing in a wide range of areas including preemption, arbitration and climate change. He has authored both merits and amicus briefs in a number of cases, including Rent-A-Center v. Jackson (merits briefing in a case concerning pre-dispute mandatory arbitration); AEP v. Connecticut (amicus brief on behalf of climate scientists in global warming case); U.S. Bank v. Aguayo (brief in opposition in banking preemption case); Priester v. Ford (cert petition in auto preemption case); and Williamson v. Mazda (amicus brief in auto preemption case).
Matt also specializes in representing organizational plaintiffs, including municipalities and non-profit organizations. He has represented, among other groups, the Center for Food Safety, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Center for Auto Safety, the Town of Telluride, Colo., and a coalition of organic farmers. He routinely speaks across the country on issues affecting consumers, employees, the environment, and access to justice.
Before coming to Public Justice, Matt was an associate at the law firm Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C., and clerked on the U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School and Williams College. Matt is admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and numerous federal courts.